Lilah Samerique: A Warrior's Heart
by andistarz10348
Summary: First of all, this is not based on Mario, but there is a princess warrior in it so, thats the first thing. What the story is about will be explained in the first chapter/prologue.
1. Prolouge and Chapter 1

Meet the Characters: All are good friends except for * under divided line:

Tahlia "Lilah" (Lie-La) Samerique: a seventeen year old girl who is a princess warrior. Her favorite color is hot pink. She's clever, energetic, enthusiastic, fashionable, a girly girl, sassy, funny, outgoing, daring, sweet and creative. Is considered the Spice in Sugar and Spice. She is the Princess of Alexdriana Hall Palace.

Anthony Samerique: a nineteen year old boy who is Lilah's older brother. His favorite color is blue. He is cocky, funny, a ladies' man, knows he is good looking, boastful, a jock, and is protective of his little sister. He is the Prince of Alexdriana Palace.

Chrystina Samerique: a proud mother of Lilah and Anthony and is the Queen of Alexdriana Palace. Her favorite color is red. Her personality is a lot like Lilah but Lilah believes Chrystina is flirtier than she is.

Jazz Michaels: an eighteen and ¾ boy who is Anthony's best friend for life (are practically brothers) and Lilah's frienemy. His favorite color is green. He is cocky, a jock, funny, a ladies' man, lay back, and knows he's good looking. He especially loves to annoy Lilah.

Sunny Adrias: a seventeen and a half year old girl and is Lilah's best friend. Her favorite color is purple. She's persistent, a girly girl, sweet, clever, and is Lilah's personal relationship adviser. Is considered the sugar in Sugar and Spice.

Blaze McDeils: an eighteen year old boy and is Lilah's other best friend. His favorite color is orange. He is shy, sweet, a jock, a little nerdy, and always has his friend's backs. He has a soft side for Lilah.

Lexi McBrown- a seventeen year old girl and is one of Lilah's closest friends. Her favorite color is pink and turquoise. She is funny, sweet, pretty, is a singer, model, dancer and actress, she is also very fashionable and knows the latest trends. She moved to Florida but Lilah keeps in touch with her and invites her to visit over the summer. (Has a little brother named Brian who is a very good dancer as well.)

Brandon Miller: an eighteen and a half year old boy who is friends with Anthony and Jazz. His favorite color is royal blue. Even though he is friends with every one of the above characters, he has a closer relationship with Lilah (Anthony and Chrystina have the most of course.)

Others:

Jerry and Bruce Evans: Queen Chrystina Samerique's older brothers. (Are Anthony and Lilah's uncles)

Tiffany Simons: one of the most popular juniors in Lilah's grade. Her favorite color is aqua and pink. She is very pretty, fashionable but over does it in inappropriate ways, outgoing (most of the time in a bad way), and is trying to be part of Lilah's inner circle of friends along with her crazy posy.

Steven Samerique: Husband of Chrystina Samerique, father of Anthony and Lilah. He disappeared three years ago with no trace, and is the King of Alexdriana Palace.

More about Lilah Samerique and some inside background about her life:

Lilah Samerique is an African American. She has long thin black hair up to her waist, an long heart shaped face, light brown skin, brown eyes, pretty cheek bones, dimples, small ears, a small nose, middle sized lips, a skinny body, long legs, wears make up normally golden/brown eyeshadow, and black mascara for symbolism. What she likes to wear other than dresses, skirts, blouses, skinny jeans, beanies, and other girly attire, is her ivory long sleeved low cut blouse, tan capris she stuffs into her knee length brown boots with a one inch heel, a brown shiny belt, with a loop for her sword, brown gloves, small ruby red dangling earrings, and a locket that is shaped like a heart and is gold colored that has a picture of her father.

Lilah loves adventure and her battle skills. If anyone says she can't do something, she'll prove them wrong. The biggest things that help her in her sword fighting are her aggressiveness and her flexibility. She isn't afraid to get muddy and dirty too. She can sometimes be short tempered but is also wishy washy with her emotions. She can be a joker and big mouth one day and then quiet and serious girl the next day. She loves coming up with her own styles and has a secret. She loves to sing, dance, write stories and songs and is really good at it. Nobody knows not even Sunny. Her birthday is October 28th. She lives a pretty normal life. She goes to public school and has an iPhone.

Lilah decided she wanted to be more than a princess; she wanted to be a warrior like her brother. In her backyard, boys in the town practice to advance their battle skills in the warrior battle training groud, and Chrystina's brothers Jerry and Bruce run the camp. _**No girls **_were to practice any battle techniques but were instead to cook and clean and help their family. The princess was supposed to learn these duties and be formal which sounded boring to Lilah so she disguised herself to be a guy named Roman and proved to all the boys and her uncle that a girl could actually learn to beat them if she tried. Before her secret was revealed, she became the first guy to advance to the higher group while so young. When her secret was revealed, she befriended Blaze and they've been friends since.

Lilah always watched the boys practice from her bedroom window. Some of the boys liked to see that she was there and try to impress her. She would laugh when they made a mistake and the boy would blush so red Lilah thought no one could turn back to their skin tone again. She especially loved when she would be sent to give a message to her uncle Jerry that her mom needed him, and when she walked through the battle grounds, all at once the boys would be shooting bow and arrow at the targets trying to hit the bulls- eye just to impress her. She rarely flirted back but occasionally she would. She thought it was hilarious when she would walk up to some of them ask if she could touch their bow and show her how to use it. When they would stand behind her, hold her arms and release her expecting her to miss, she would do better than how he shot, since she already knew how the use the bow and arrow. Then they would say lucky shot.

Why there were no girls allowed and how this didn't stop Lilah:

Boys groups: 10-15 beginner, 16-23 advanced. (Lilah was 14 and a half at the time.)

Boys were known to be better fighters because they were stronger. Lilah didn't believe strength had anything to do with fighting as much as the willing to practice and think one step ahead. Since she wanted to join, she had to hide her identity. She ran into her father's closet and grabbed a cap which was loose, but if she tied her hair in a bun, it would fit perfectly. She ran into Uncle Jerry and asked for help to hide her identity. He laughed at the idea of a girl especially Lilah fighting but helped her by giving her a small uniform that wasn't used. He also gave her a wooden sword and bow and arrow for practice. He told her that if she could beat everyone in her age group when they had their battle assessment, then he would let her continue her studies, and get a real but small sword of her own and advance to the older group which was the advanced group her brother, Jazz and Blaze were in but also keep her identity a secret. He made her promise that if she couldn't achieve that, she couldn't continue in case she got caught and would get in trouble. She came up with the name Roman, got introduced the next day, and ended up proving her uncle wrong, and beat the boys in her age group by a mile. She moved to the advanced group and was the first guy to jump ahead so quickly, and this leads up to how she met Blaze.

She was still young so she had to train with the sixteen year olds so she was paired up with Blaze a lot. One day, they had to choose partners to practice sword fighting with. Roman had beaten Jazz and embarrassed him in front of Anthony and his friends. He told Roman that he would teach him a lesson but Blaze stopped him and told him to try someone easier. Blaze had suspected Roman was a girl but wasn't too sure. They practiced sword fighting and Blaze noticed part of Lilah's hair was sliding out of her cap. She panicked and used one hand to hold the cap and the other to sword fight. Luckily, her uncle ended the battle training for the day and everyone left. When Lilah was about to leave, Jazz, Anthony and some to their friends challenged her. Lilah could tell Jazz was still angry and accepted the challenge. The five boys circled around her and started attacking and Lilah struck back. While they were fighting, her cap fell off and she didn't notice. Immediately, the guys noticed and stopped with their mouths dropping open. Lilah panicked, picked up her cap and fled to her uncle with the boys on her heels. She hid behind Uncle Jerry while the boys protested. Uncle Jerry sent Lilah inside and she ran to her room crying. Blaze met up with her in her room and she explained to him that she might have to quit her training. Blaze listened and joked with her and made her feel better. Lilah thanked him for making her feel better. They next day, Blaze came early and convinced Uncle Jerry to let her continue her studies. Uncle Jerry called for Lilah who was in her room lying down still upset and told her to come to practice. Excited, she quickly changed into her battle uniform, went to the training ground, hugged Uncle Jerry and Blaze and Uncle Jerry told the boys they were to accept Lilah otherwise they could quit. The boys didn't like it at first but eventually they got over it. Anthony and Jazz took the longest to accept her but they found her helpful in many of their group challenges. Jazz and Blaze been good friends to her since, and Anthony liked the idea of having his little sister train with him.

Chapter one:

"Lilah get your butt over here!" my brother Anthony shouted.

I got up from my bed where I was examining my blade of my sword, pull up my black capris and pull down my white low cut tank top and open the door to see Anthony looming over me.

"Why didn't you clean the bows this morning?" he demanded.

"I don't know "dad" maybe I didn't think I lost to Jazz in the showdown." I object, rolled my eyes and stepped past him.

"Hey, you might as well call me dad since he isn't here at the moment."

"Never, you think you're so mature and adult like yet you don't have a single hair on your chin." I say flicking his chin to emphasize my point.

He grabs my wrist and gruffly whips my arm behind my back and pins me against the wall. Before, I would scream and wiggle to get free. Now I stay quiet and wait.

"Are we clear on whose boss now?" He asks in my ear.

"Yes," I complain and he releases. "You're 19 and yet you still don't have a hair" I laugh which makes him frown and tense up.

Anthony believes he's 25 or something even though I'm sure he is really 8. Many girls at my school always ask how Anthony is. Or girls I rarely talk to ask if we can hang out at my house (So they can drool over Anthony.) To be the prince (yes we are a part of royalty and yes that means I'm a princess for those who can't catch on) of the Alexdriana palace, he does take his role sometimes too seriously. Well that's my opinion at least. He is well built up though. He has a six pack with good biceps and can run fast like me but is slightly faster. He has curly African hair and sometimes I call him Daffy Duck cause he has big feet. He has chocolate colored skin and he's 6'2", has small ears, a middle sized nose and brown eyes. So if I was one of those girls in school who just looked at him for the first time I guess I would be crushing on him too. But in this case ewwwww! The annoying part is that he knows he's hott, but hey if he can say that he's hott, i can say that a wart hog is hotter than him and that I'm sexier than Mila Kunis.

He smiles feeling satisfied. "Go clean the bows Lilah." He says smiling and walks down the stairs to the study room to prepare for his match test this afternoon.

I sigh and trudge down the stairs after him but go out the back door to the warrior practice arena. I walk to the box of dusty and muddy bows and drag them toward the tap. Next, I fill the bucket next to the tap with water and soap, grab two rags, a stool and tie my long silky black hair in a high messy ponytail. As I bend down to dip one rag into the soapy suds, I hear a snicker from behind. I quickly stand up and turn my head around to see Jazz grinning at me.

"Now that should be what you stick to Pig Brain, instead of being a warrior, it fits you better." He taunted.

I step away from the bows and march up to him not taking my eyes off of his. I made sure there was a slight distance between us but enough so we stood face to face. Well face to chest. Like Anthony, Jazz is tall about 6'3" and every girl likes him at my school too. They think he's this hunk with smooth words. Only I know what he is capable of.

"Well Beef Brain, someone has to be fair and take actions for someone's cheating." I say and turn on my heel to get back to the bows.

"Victory feels so sweet. I soooo did beat you and you have the bruises to prove it." He walked up to me and poked my side which hurt. "And in case you didn't know, pulling my shirt is a fowl. What were you trying to do? Glance at these bad boys or what?" He starts to walk off.

I ignore his comment for a second. Just like Anthony he knows he's hott and is just as annoying. Actually, he's worst. Then it hit me. He thought I meant that I cheated.

"I didn't cheat you ass!"! I exclaim. "You illegally pushed me!"

"On accident!" He grinned turning around to face me. I swear he loves to see me mad. "Maybe you should keep your hands to yourself. If you want something, just ask."

That's it. Screw the bows and my uncle who could be in the study room. He can mark me down on points for all I care. I grabbed the bucket of suds and threw the water at him, washing his smug smile off his face. He got really angry and charged at me. I threw the bucket at him to by myself some time and ran. I ran around the house and through the front door. I bolted into the living room and sat down in one of the single couch arm chairs. No sign of Jazz yet so I guess I was fine for now. About two minutes later, my Uncle Jerry strolls into the living room calmly. I didn't look at him and pretended to be interested in a vase by the flat screen TV.

"Tahlia." He said piercingly.

I slowly looked over at him.

"Up. Now!" He snapped and I immediately got up and followed him.

He led me to the Study Room and held out a hand for me to wait and used his other hand to gesture someone to come. A second later, Jazz stepped out. He was shirtless, his pants and hair was still wet and he had a pink towel over his shoulders which made me shudder and almost throw up. That was one of my towels, and my uncle was letting him use it.

"Tahlia apologize." My uncle said calmly.

My mouth dropped. Seriously? My uncle who is very reasonable, and is always on my side just told me to apologize? To this monster?

"Excuse me? What was that?" I say not believing what I heard.

"I said apologize." He replied looking me in the eye making my heart plunge under his stare which meant do it or you're dead meat. So much for having special treatment.

I start to squirm and out of the corner of my eye I saw Jazz grin, loving to see me get defeated.

"Turn to face him!" My uncle barked.

I slowly turned toward Jazz biting my lip which tasted like watermelon because of my lip gloss.

"I'm..."

"Look at him!" My uncle said angrily tired of my foul actions.

I sighed and dreaded the moment. "I'm sorry Jazz." I say quickly trying to make this nightmare end.

"For what?" Jazz pushed smiling smugly at me.

"For drenching you with water okay. Happy?" I say whipping my head toward my uncle giving him the "can I go now?" look.

"Tahlia, you will finish cleaning the bows and swords." My uncle said simply and Jazz snickered. "With the help of our good friend Jazz." My uncle stares at him, pats him on the shoulder and immediately he stopped laughing.

"But." He whined.

Now it was my turn to snicker but then I thought. About two hours cleaning with Jazz... NOOOO!

"Uncle Jerry!" I cry.

"You can't expect me to work with her." Jazz added pointing at me.

"I would like to see them polished by lunch thank you." My uncle says ignoring our pleas and walks into the study hall.

Jazz and I stand there quiet staring at the Study Hall door.

"This is all your fault." Jazz finally says glaring at me.

"How. How is this my fault?" I retort glaring back at him.

"You splashed me!" He exclaimed throwing his hands in the air.

"You cheated!"

"You tried to slide your hands under my shirt!"

"What?!"

"You heard me."

"That never happened! I didn't even touch you. You lying weasel!"

"You're so annoying!"

"Right back at cha." I snapped.

I turned on my heel and stormed into the courtyard, grabbed two rags and picked up the bucket I threw and filled it up with water and soap. I sat on the stool I had left there and started cleaning. Jazz not too long afterwards placed a stool next to me, sat down, grabbed a bow, grabbed the second rag and dipped it in the bucket. I must have signed loudly or something because he looked at me.

"What?"

I said nothing and continued cleaning the bow I had picked up, and tucked my bangs behind my ear.

"What did I do?" He asked not getting it.

"What are we supposed to dry the bows and swords with genius?" I retort and continue cleaning the bow.

He holds he wet rag and says nothing. I look over at him out of the corner of my eye and see him looking at the bow. He's still shirtless and has my towel over his shoulders.

"I'll get a new rag." I say sighing about to get up but Jazz puts his hand on my wrist.

"Hold on. You got something on your face." He says making me look at him.

"What?"

"Hold on I got it." He says and puts his fingers on my chin and slowly pulls my face close to his face.

We're so close that I can smell the faint scent of his cologne. With his other hand, he puts the wet rag on his knee and flicks water on my face.

"What the heck!" I yell pulling my face away from his while he's laughing.

"Now we're even." He smiles at me and I just narrow my eyes at him and get up and turn to get a new rag. "Come on Paris you need to lighten up." I hear him call.

I turn my head. "Paris?"

He looks at me as if he knows something I don't know. "I don't know. Just tryin it out. You look like a Paris. Annoying, and cold as stone."

"Lilah is just fine thanks." I call and return with another rag and sit down. He chuckles and shrugs cleaning his bow.

"Sure thing Bloated Buffalo."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two:

We managed to get half the bows done by lunch. By myself I could have been starting the swords, but Jazz just had to be a douche and slow me down.

" When we're done, as a reward you can keep that towel." I say placing a dried bow on the table nearby to dry.

" Really? Would you be sorry its gone?" he teased. "I know you like pink."

I glared at him and wish I could slap his face.

"It's not mine." I lied.

"Really? That's a shocker." He said getting up to stretch, his muscles gleaming in the sunlight. "You could bottle up my smell and make millions."

"Yah, the smell of soap dirt and sweat. Heavenly." I say sarcastically. I'm pretty sure I'll make millions without it. But of course, I would burn that towel anyway." I add and then look over at him.

"So this is your towel. I feel honored to be using the princess's towel."

"Shut up!"

"You're so cold. You can't even take a joke!"

"Can too!"

"Really?"

"Yah!"

"Don't by it."

Annoyed, I grab a new bow and clean it. One good thing came out of this. Well two things. It was at least ninety-six degrees out and the water was cold, and I got help with the bows. We worked in silence for awhile occasionally taking a break. When we got back to work, Jazz was getting under my skin again.

"So how's Mrs. Kwindle?" Jazz asked.

I glared at him and he grinned. Mrs. Kwindle is the biggest English bitch on the planet. I swear she hates everyone but Jazz. Why? I don't for her. Since he graduated with Anthony last year, she's been more bitchy giving excuses for everything. She is annoying too. She would always ask how's Jazz? Like I would reply. Is he my main concern in life? Hardly.

"I think you two are done." Uncle Jerry says behind us making us jump.

"Thank you sir." Jazz sighed heavily with relief, dropped his rag and ran off.

"For a soon to be nineteen year old, I'm sure he really is turning six." I say getting up while dusting my capris.

"Mhm." Uncle Jerry nodded and walked off.

I ran up to my room and changed into a pink and white low cut tank top with black jeaned denim booty shorts. I closed my bedroom door and punched the lock in the door knob to lock the door. I strolled over to my side table by my bed and grabbed my iPhone with a new neon pink cover with sparkly cheetah spots that I had recently bought. I went to my music selection and scrolled down to Demi Lovato's Give Your Heart a Break and hooked it up to my karaoke machine. It took me forever to create a dance routine for this but now it's finally put together. It's sexy, upbeat and fun. I pressed play and waited for the cue to sing. I faced my large mirror on one of the doors of my walk in closet that I would say is big enough room to sleep in. Once I heard my cue, I started to dance and sing.

"The day I first met you told me you never fell in love…" I sang accurately. I have listened to recordings of myself so I knew I could sing close to Demi with a nice twist of strong and sweet. I then started the beginning of the routine with drawing my hand to point at the mirror, and then I raised my arms over my head, connected my hands, and started popping my hips left and right. Next, I removed my ponytail shook my hair and ran my hand through my hair. Then I bended over and rose up while rolling my hands over my body until I had my hands at my chest to form a heart with my hands. When it comes to the music I like, when I dance and sing, I really get into it. I could be the hottest back up dancer and singer. In the middle of my routine, I saw my door shut. Panicking that I swore I locked my door I ran to my iPhone, turned it off and ran to the door, opened it and looked out into the hallway. Nobody was there. I looked back in my room and sighed my heart still beating. No one knew I danced and sang. Not even Sunny, Blaze, my mom, Anthony, Uncle Jerry or Lexi. I looked over at my pink moon chair by the door and noticed a pink towel on it. My heart sank.

"Was that Jazz? How much did he see?"

I opened the curtains and looked out at the courtyard. The boys were arriving for practice. Some were already in the warrior training ground getting ready for their tests. I also saw Anthony sword fighting with a practice dummy. Jazz strolled out toward Anthony and started chatting and practicing with him too. I looked away, grabbed my phone, and went out into the hallway, down the stairs and out into the courtyard. I sat down in my normal spot which was a wooden bench opposite them. I like to watch the boys while they test so I can learn from their mistakes for my test next week. The boys started limbering up and when some of them saw me watching them, they waved, smiled at me, some started being self conscious, or pretended I wasn't even there. When Anthony saw me, he gave me a little nod and looked away to talk to one of his friends Pete. Even though he did nod to me acting as if his little sister being there was not of any concern to him, he was just trying to be cool. I could tell he was also nervous, even though I know he mastered the Fire Line move he was assigned to by heart. When I was signing up to be first in my test next week, he signed up for today, the first day of testing. He also noticed I signed up first so he did too just to be level with me. Believe me I would have signed up for today but knowing me, I would try to procrastinate. I also knew I had tests in school to study for which were supposed to be this week but my teachers decided to post pone everything to next week since apparently they heard the warrior testing was this week. Stupid teachers…. I also saw Blaze limbering up by Jazz and he waved hello and I waved back. Jazz followed his gaze and looked at me. He looked like he was about to say something but Anthony called him and Blaze and Jazz over. Jazz looked back at me, nodded and walked toward Anthony who had the clipboard of everyone's position in testing.

"Testing time!" I realized, and I saw them line up. Anthony led the line, Jazz was second and Blaze was third.

"Lilah!"

I turned my head to see Uncle Jerry motioning me over. Conscious that the boys were watching me, I put my phone in my back pocket, reached under my bench to grab my flip flops I usually leave there, slipped them on and walked to my uncle.

"Yah."

"Drag the dummies to the ring and then grab a clipboard. To make things faster so we can get out of this hot weather, we're going two at a time." Uncle Jerry explained.

"Wait, so I get to grade them too?" I asked excited.

"Yep."

I dragged the dummies to the center and grabbed a clipboard. Uncle Jerry gave me a stack of testing requirements sheets and I attached them to the clipboard. I then took the pink pen he offered me and I walked over and stood behind dummy number.

"Odds face dummy number one, evens face dummy number two." Uncle Jerry ordered.

I watched the boys assemble themselves. Anthony led the line for dummy number one and Jazz led the line for dummy number two. My uncle lightly pushed me to dummy number two. I'm going to grade Jazz? I walked behind dummy number two and stood so I could see Jazz. When he saw me, he stiffened a little but then relaxed.

"Now we'll see how well you try to cheat out of this." I thought and smiled slyly at him.

I waited for my uncle to raise his arm to let Anthony and Jazz know they had a minute and thirty seconds to review everything before their best begins. I decided to raise my arm too so I would look professional. I watched the pillar clock beside my uncle. They had twenty-seven seconds left… eleven seconds… five seconds….

"Three… two… one….." my uncle says.

"Ungard!" I shout with my uncle and drop our arms and back up.

Both guys did their beginning positions. Anthony had his sword over his head while in a bended lobster pose and Jazz stood to the side with his sword pointing sideways to the dummy, which is the beginning of the Ice Speartz. I checked off excellent for standing position. He glanced at me waiting for me to let him start. I looked at the clock. Each test is nine minutes. Each segment lasted three minutes. I nodded the okay motion and he took off. I noticed his Ice Speartz was very similar to Lightning Vortex I was assigned to. Many times he would quickly glance at me and I would give him no emotion of how he was doing like my uncle. It's just so it doesn't distract the tester. Finally, the whole testing was done. I gave him +27/30 because he misstepped the air strike in the second segment and did the strike too early because of that. He knew it too because I could see his eyes darken. But either way he did well. I walked over to my uncle, gave him Jazz's test sheet and he gave me Anthony's to put into the computer. I looked at Anthony's score. +29/30. I grinned. I had a chance to beat him for once. I punched the scores into the computer and put the tests into a portfolio.

"Lilah can you stay to punch in the scores, Uncle Bruce can test the rest." Uncle Jerry called to me.

"Okay…." I sighed.

"Thank you." He called.

I sat by the computer bored punching in test scores. I then felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked over my shoulder to see Jazz standing over me.

"How did I do?" he asked.

"Fine." I said simply looking away at the next testers.

"Seriously I need to know. I know I messed up with air strike but that didn't cost my grade did it? I need at least 90% for my mom to be happy. Please tell me I got a least a 90, because I need to phone and can't afford to have it taken away again."

"You will have to wait like everyone else." I say still not looking at him.

"What's with all the secrecy all of a sudden?" Jazz asked.

"Secrecy?" I say confused.

"You know exactly what I mean." Jazz pushed.

"You know _exactly _what I'm talking about Pickle Face." Jazz said smugly.

I shake my head and cross my arms. "You need to stop assuming I know how you think.

"Alright then. I should just _dance _my way out of here." He says and winks at me and does this weird hip hop/ballet move and walks off.

I narrow my eyes at him and then go back to putting scores in the computer now convinced that Jazz was the one who saw me dance and sing.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next morning I took a shower, sang Tik Tok by Ke$ha and got ready for school. Today I decided a gold head band, a sky blue off the shoulder top, golden colored skinny jeans with black cheetah prints, gold flats, black and gold dangling hoop earrings, gold eyeshadow, black mascara and eyeliner, and pink lipgloss. I also chose to curl my hair for emphasis. Today the temperature cooled down so it wasn't so bad. Sixty degrees at least. I grabbed my zebra stripped backpack, pink coach purse, car keys to my red Kia, and my phone. After that, I ran downstairs, grabbed my breakfast bagel and walked to the garage. I opened the garage door, walked over to my Kia and started the engine while stepping inside. I realized that I never saw my mom this morning like I normally do, so I texted her saying that I was leaving and put my phone in one of the cup holders. As I was backing out of the garage and onto the driveway, Jazz ran up to the passenger side and buckled up.

"What do you think you're doin?" I say as I close the garage.

"Going with you to school of course."

"Why?"

"Well…Actually, I want to tell you something."

"What?" I sigh heavily losing my patience.

"I know how to find your dad."

"Get out."

"What?"

"Get out!"

"Why?"

I glare at him and I have definitely lost my patience. The only sliver that was left of course. "It's one thing to joke but that…that is a new low for you."

"Lilah I'm not lying. I found a scroll and map in the chamber. We…"

"You went into the chamber! You do realize you can get expelled…"

"Yah and you would miss me the most." He added.

"Shut up! You're nothing but a Beef Brain!"

"Lilah you need to hear me out. There's a reason you uncle doesn't want anyone to go into the chamber." He says putting his hand on my arm.

I feel skeptical. Jazz could just be pulling my leg again, on the other hand, this could be my chance to get somewhere and find my dad.

"Look, how can I trust you on this?" I say pulling my arm away from him. The way he touched my arm like that gave me goosebumps all of a sudden. And the way he's looking at me is creeping me out. He looks so sincere.

"Look, would I call you Lilah if I was joking?" he asked so seriously I was wondering if this was still Jazz.

"Yes you would." I reply. "And if we don't wrap this up, I'm going to be late."

"Alright. When you have study hall leave early today."

"How do you know that I don't have a six hour class?" I ask still creeped out.

"Anthony told me. Now will you? You can invite Blaze and Sunny. I already told Anthony. He's calling the meeting." Jazz says stretching.

While he's stretching, his black shirt starts to ride up a little showing his stomach. Most girls around here act mesmerized when they see a guys abs and six or if they're lucky, eight pack. I pretend that I don't notice by grabbing my iPhone from the cup holder.

"Nice case." He adds pulling down his shirt with one hand and holding out his other hand for my phone.

Sighing, I hand it over to him. He looks at it then starts punching in something.

"Hey!" I shout grabbing my phone. I wish I had locked it. "What did you do?"

"Nothing." He says shrugging but then smiles at me.

I glare at him and look at the time. 8:05. Shit I'm late. I haven't even left the driveway yet. There was no way in twenty minutes I was going to make it. "Look I got to go. I'm already late." I sigh.

The last thing I need is to be cleaning desks after school for Mrs. Kwindle.

"No worries, I'll be your pass." He says drumming his fingers on the airbag holder. If only it decided to burst out now. I would laugh.

Sighing a heavy sigh again, I back out of the driveway slowly and go on my way.

"So…Why do you never call me Jazz?" Jazz asked out of nowhere.

"Cause. You give me no reason to call you Jazz." I reply occasionally glancing at the time. 8:12.

There was silence the rest of the drive there. (Thank goodness.) Once we arrived there, it was 8:35. I parked in my normal parking spot and grabbed my phone, purse and backpack while Jazz got out. Then it hit me.

"How are you going to get home?" I ask staring at him.

Jazz looked blankly at me. As usual, he never thinks things through.

"I'll just have Anthony pick me up." He finally says and waited for me to lock my vehicle.

"Interesting. I didn't think you had a plan." I say lifting my backpack over my shoulder.

"Here I can help since I'm your escort." He says and takes my backpack and slings it over one shoulder. "What do you got in here bricks?"

"Textbooks." I say as I start to walk to the building. I then cock my head to the side. "Why are you being so nice?"

He stops looking looks at me. "Just want to I guess." He replies and I nod still not getting what he's after.

We walk in step together again and there is silence. As we walk into the building, the welcome desk ladies smile and say hi to Jazz who smiles and waves back. Making sure no one sees us, we decide to ride the elevator. Ironically, Demi Lovato's Give Your Heart a Break starts playing. I feel Jazz's eyes on me and I can't look him in the eye. Then he starts humming the lyrics and I urgently want to sing and dance to it but I resist the urge and manage to control myself. I blame the person who decided that having a five story high school is worth something. The first floor is already big enough. Finally, we reach the third floor and I speed walk to locker in turquoise pod. In my school, there are different colored lockers for each grade. Freshman lockers are black, blue and white. Sophomores are green, orange and yellow. Juniors are turquoise, red and brown. Seniors are purple, gold, and silver. (Purple, black, silver and gold are our school colors aka Alexdriana colors.) Some of the senior lockers are pink because the first seniors in the building added a pink polished coating to some of them. To get a locker in this school its first come first serve. If you have a tall locker in this school, you're all set for the year. For me and other girls in my grade and beyond, if you have a pink tall locker that means you have the "in" locker and believe me, many girls want locker 3001 because it has glitter pink sequined butterflies on it. Usually, and ironically the girls who are the most popular in your grade get pink lockers but I already took position of claiming it, so when the locker assignments come later today, (yah its weird you're getting your locker assignments for the next school year) in your first hour. Which I'm missing. Its 8:51 and I'm just getting to my locker. Jazz leans against the locker beside mine as I open my short locker.

"Pack please." I say and he gives me my backpack. I grab my English textbook, pink binder, my pencil pouch, neon pink with black cheetah prints duct taped with pictures of Taylor Lautner, Max Schneider, Hector David Jr, Big time Rush, 1D and some other stickered planner and my reading book called TTYL XOXO. Jazz shuts my locker and I sling my purse over my shoulder and stuff my phone into my back pocket. Jazz and I walk in step together with silence again. Finally, we arrive at Mrs. Kwindle's classroom and I knock on the door. A guy named James reaches over and opens the door. Immediately all eyes are on me. Even though I'm a princess, I like to keep things at a low key so on the first day of ninth grade, I told everyone to treat me like any other student. Sometimes I regret saying that. Like today.

"Miss Samerique, you finally show up. Tell me where is your pass?" Mrs. Kwindle says with a lot to edge.

"Uh he's here." I say looking at Jazz who now decides to step into view.

All eyes turn to look at Jazz. Some girls flip their hair flirtously and smile as he scans the room. One of the popular crowd girls Tiffany Simons shouts "Hi Jazz."

He nods and smiles. "Sorry Mrs. Kwindle. I kinda needed Lilah's help this morning."

"Oh Jazz that's fine." Mrs. Kwindle says brightly. "Lilah please take your seat." She adds politely smiling at me that I know will only last for so long.

As I'm about to step away from Jazz, he grabs my wrist so I stare at him. "You forgot this." He say handing me my cinnamon glazed bagel but then snaps off a quarter of it and eats it. After he wipes his mouth with the back of his arm, he hands it back to me.

I glare at him and take it. "Thanks Jazz. I definitely said for you to have some." I say sarcastically and roll my eyes. He chuckles and gives me a half hug which I accept for the heck of it.

Mrs. Kwindle looks like she's about to blow along with some girls in my class, so I quickly shuffle to my desk which is in the right middle of the room. I feel eyes on me but I keep looking forward and walk boldly as normal with the heels of my flats making a faint clicking sound as I step. I slide into my seat and am thankful that Mrs. Kwindle had me and Sunny sit next to each other.

"What did I miss?" I ask her who sits left of me as I open my textbook to yesterday's reading.

"We talked about the reading and just got our locker assignments." She whispers. "So why is Jazz your pass?"

"Long story, deets at lunch." I reply looking over at Jazz who is chatting with Mrs. Kwindle about old times.

He catches my eye, winks and ends his conversation with Mrs. Kwindle. "Well, I gotta go Kwindz. It was nice chatting with ya. Later everybody. " he says and looks at me. He gives me a peace sign while smiling. I give him a peace sign in return but roll my eyes. He grins again, waves at Mrs. Kwindle and leaves shutting the door behind him. Now I'm certain all eyes are on me including Mrs. Kwindle's.

"Lilah here's your locker assignment in exchange for your reading questions." She says walking over to my desk. She hands me an envelope and I hand her the questions. She then goes to the computer to put the final thing on her agenda on the smartboard.

"What's your locker assignment?" I mouth at Sunny.

She writes on the top corner of a looseleaf piece of paper and shows me. 3002. She starts grinning.

My mouth drops. "Lucky!" I mouth.

"What's yours?" She mouths to me.

I open the envelope, pull out a purple colored letter, and see my name, student Id number, and then locker number….3001! I smile brightly and write on her paper 3001.

"Lucky!" she mouths and smiles. This is what I love about our friendship. When one of us gets something good, we always are happy for each other.

"Lucky us!" I mouth back and smile. Lockers 3001, 3002, and 3009 are the best popular lockers for girls. Pretty much, that's where all the popular guys and girls hang out.

"Okay class page four-hundred and thirty one, numbers one through twelve are due tomorrow." Mrs. Kwindle says. "Any questions."

A guy named Reese Sanders aka the kid who is lazy when it comes to work or studying but enjoys video games and sports (he is actually really cute with his blond tannish hair, tan skin and ocean blue eyes and definitely is ripped. I used to have a crush on him and a lot of girls were certain he was taking an interest in me cause whenever we are in science together, he asks Mrs. Bailey if there is an empty seat at my table and sits next to me practically flirting with me all the time) raises his hand. "Yah, can I leave now?"


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"I heard the girls at locker 3001 and 3002 are sluts." Sunny says taking a bite out of her chips and salsa.

"Yah, I heard that they leave lingerie in their lockers to put in the guys lockers." I add, taking a chip.

"You guys are so psyched for your lockers. A locker is just a locker if you ask me." Blaze says taking a bite out of his pepperoni pizza.

Sunny and I stare at Blaze and shake our heads in unison.

"It's where it's located that matters Blaze." I say exasperated on why he didn't get this. I snuck one of his grapes into my mouth.

"Still seems ridiculous to me." He shrugs.

We sit in the same spot in the cafeteria every year; in the corner of the lunchroom at a high table so we can look across the cafeteria.

"Okay Lilah. It's lunch. What was up this morning between you and Jazz?" Sunny asks while tying her hair in a ponytail and Blaze glances over at me cocking an eyebrow.

"Well…." I start trying to take another grape but Blaze slaps my hand away.

"You have your own lunch." He says pointing to my half eaten pepperoni pizza.

Sunny slaps Blaze on the arm, glares at him and looks at me to say "go on".

"I was out on the driveway when he just comes out of nowhere, enters my Kia and buckles up." I pause to sip my propel and give myself time to recreate the tale in the most dramatic way ever which is what I do a lot just to stretch the truth for fun. "Then he's like telling me that he knows how to find my dad. Then he claims that he went into the chamber…"

As soon as I said chamber, Blaze almost sprayed his milk on me and Sunny. "What?! He could be…"

"Quit interrupting!"Sunny sighs about to boil over since the interruptions are preventing her from getting the scoop. "We know he can get expelled you two told me this."

"He claims that he found a scroll and a map. He wants me to come home early to look at it. He invited you guys too." I continue.

"We should. Lilah this could be it!" Sunny says excitedly leaning across the table and shakes me.

"Trust Jazz? No thanks." I say, get up and throw away my lunch.

"But he could be not lying. "Blaze says following me to the trash.

I turn to face my friends while I put my tray in the tray return booth. "Puleeze, this is the same Jazz during my birthday party decided that putting a snake in behind the giant pink feathers to the birthday chair, saying that he left my present behind there."

"Yah, I remember. That was the first real girly scream I heard from you this year." Blaze laughed.

I rolled my eyes and pushed right past him to our table. "You know I wouldn't have screamed because it scared me, it just caught me by surprise."

"Right….So you being hesitant to sit in that chair for the rest of your big bonanza birthday party was because you just didn't feel like sitting?" Sunny asked as she stood beside us at the table.

I glared at her and crossed my arms not replying to anything the two threw at me. "I'm still not trusting him or going to give him my satisfaction." I say getting us back on the topic that started everything.

"Lilah we should at least look at it. Have Anthony look at it as well." Sunny pleads."

"Guys…." I whine.

"We're going." Blaze says firmly taking leadership of this dilemma as usual.

"But…." I start but the bell rings. Lunch was officially over.

We quickly say goodbye and go in separate directions to our fifth hour class. As I'm walking off I hear someone calling my name.

"Lilah!"

I turn around to see none other than Tiffany Simons looking gorgeous as always. She looks like she could be on the cover of Vogue or Seventeen Magazine. Sunny, Blaze, and lots of other people believe I'm just as or prettier than Tiffany but I really could care less. I wouldn't mind the modeling idea though along with a deal with some record dealers who wouldn't mind giving me a chance to sing, dance and make a music video and create my own fashion lines. Okay so I'm fantasying a bit but it could happen. Anyway she flips her long blonde flowy hair perfectly and sashays over to me.

"Sooooo…you and Jazz." She says smiling adjusting her yellow clingy top that I'm pretty sure showed too much of her boobs.

"What about us?" I ask not following her.

"Oh come on Lilah you know what I mean." She nudges her elbow into my side.

I look dumbly at her. I know black people are either on the smart or stupid end of the spectrum but these mind games… I don't get them. Why can't people be more straight forward? "Still not followin."

"So you guys aren't hooked up?" she asks.

"Oh. Yah we're not. We're just….neighbors." I say. We're not exactly friends, but we're definitely not strangers either.

"Oh cause I assumed the way he looked at you in class today. I thought you two had a thing going on." She shrugged.

"Uh huh." I nod back not sure what to say. How _did _he look at me in class?

"Well later. And by the way I love your outfit, its sooooo cute!" she replies.

Before I can reply back, she's gone among the crowd. I feel a buzz in my back pocket. I don't have much time before the bell rings so I quickly jog up the stairs and speed walk to Chemistry. Barely getting there on time, I quickly slide into my seat while my teacher Mr. Watson marks the tardy people and does the attendance. I take out my phone along with other people who have found the opportunity to text and look at who texted me. My mouth drops when I see who had sent it. I read: c u soon. No study hall. Come home rite away~ J.

"What?! How did Jazz get my number?" I thought. I looked at the text sender. Jazz was shown as a contact. "How did….?" Then I remembered this morning. That will be the last time I let him touch my phone. And knowing Anthony, he told Jazz my number. He won't be getting French silk pie tonight from me.

As soon as Chemistry was over, I ignored Jazz's invite and went to the school's library. The library is the best place to study especially since not many people are around during sixth hour since most of them have a class. Study hall isn't really considered a class but I took it so I could just have time to get work done. The library has a mini water fall in the back of it and some vending machines. Of course the best parts about it are the books. They have so many copies of each book, there's never really a waiting list, and sometimes during the school year, they have a book sale and you can buy some books to help raise money for the school (as if they don't have enough money as it is, remember the school has five floors). Fifteen minutes after I had settled down to cram into some studying, I get texts from Anthony, Jazz, Sunny and Blaze all asking "where are you?" So Sunny and Blaze somehow managed to ditch their sixth hours? Kudos to them. By the sixtieth text (I didn't count, I wasn't that bored), I gave up, gathered my books and phone, went to my locker, grabbed my backpack and went out to my Kia and eventually drove home. Once I got there, everyone was camped out on the driveway. The moved as I parked my Kia and went inside. I grabbed my stuff ran inside and up to my room dropped my stuff off there, grabbed my phone and met up with the crew in the Study Room.

"Where have you been?" Anthony asked. "We've been waiting for you to show up."

"Oh I didn't know I was that important." I say sarcastically rolling my eyes.

Anthony shook his head and stood beside me on my right and Jazz stood beside me on my left. Blaze and Sunny stood opposite of us. Jazz took out a scroll and map from his string bag and laid it out for all of us to see. I looked at it carefully. It seemed legit and everything was in my father's handwriting full of scribbles and all that fancy writing he used to say didn't make sense to him when he was learning to write like that. I looked over at Jazz who looked at me. He gave me a "I told you so" look and I shoved him aside which made him grin. Sunny stared at me and smiled. I gave her a warning look and mouthed no way.

"It looks like we're supposed to go to that bridge." Anthony addressed suddenly pointing to a bridge that connected two cliffs.

"We should be able to get there by sundown." Jazz added.

"What? You guys want to go today? Sunny what about school? Blaze you've never missed a day once!" I exclaim staring at my friends in disbelief.

"Lilah if we wait, we could really loose our dad." Anthony impatiently responds.

I turn to face my brother. "Anthony, it's been three years. We don't even know when this scroll and map was made. I'm not saying that we're too late but I'm sure if he's still alive, he wouldn't mind waiting ten more days, so we can finish school for the year. Ten more days won't hurt us."

"Lilah, we both know that we need to go. School work can come later. And besides, this is an excuse not to do homework!" Sunny urges me making me look at her.

Their eyes look at me trying to "burn" through my sturdy wall of pleas. But of course they make me crack. "Fine, but we need to tell mom." I say to Anthony who nods and agrees.

I look at my phone for the time. 2:47. I felt someone look over my shoulder at my phone. I turned my head slowly to see Jazz. We were standing so close that it felt weird. When he saw me looking up at him, he cleared his throat and backed up a bit. I twirled a strand of my hair around my fingers and watched Anthony leave to tell our mom. Once he had left, there was a long silence. Sunny looked around at the books on the shelves. Blaze drummed his fingers on the long table. Jazz took out his iPhone and started texting. Anthony finally showed up smiling big.

"All systems go." He says excitedly. Anthony loves adventures. He never would turn away from something as big as this, and never likes to be kept up waiting.

"Shouldn't we change first?" I say. Anthony glares at me. The last thing I need is to get my new skinny jeans torn and dirty.

"Alright. Everyone be back in fifteen minutes." Anthony replies impatiently.

I ran out of the study room with Sunny at my heels to my room. Once we got there, I shut the curtains and locked my door cross checking that it was locked, and then stripped off my jeans and blouse.

"Hey, what am I going to wear? I don't have a battle uniform you know." Sunny says crossing her arms.

"You don't need one." I reply running into my walk in closet that could actually pass off as a hangout place and bedroom. I grab an old white snug shirt and some black pants. "Here." I toss the clothes at her and run back in. I look at the racks of clothes and the spinning rack. Where was my practice pants? Sunny came in and plopped down on one of the fuzzy pink sofas and picked up a neon green fuzzy pillow.

"Need help?"

"Nah I got this." I say and find some khakis that will do. I also grab a white snug shirt and put on my training jacket over it. I toss Sunny one too with some hiking boots. I slide my pair of boots on and switch my earrings to smaller gold dangling ones. I walk to my pink mirrors and sit down in the pink spinning chair in front of one of them. I realize I still was wearing the head band and took it off. There was not much time to straighten my hair but Sunny grabs one of the pink hair straighteners and starts straightening, so I grab the other sky blue one and start straightening the other side. Finally, in what I would say took at least five minutes, it was decently straightened. We turned off the straighteners and ran out of the closet. I grabbed my sword from its normal hook on the wall and followed Sunny out of the room and down the stairs. The guys were already there and Anthony was holding an extra sword which he handed to Sunny.

"Let's move." He ordered and we followed him out.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

We walked through the woods behind the courtyard that was usually used for the Spotting the Enemy tests. Anthony led the way onto the path where the map began. He took the map out of his pocket and looked at the path. He put it back in his pocket and marched forward. Jazz followed him then Blaze, me and Sunny followed behind. We occasionally took breaks and then continued. I didn't like this. Why couldn't we have waited until the weekend? Or until school was over for Holiday Break? Why were we moving so slowly? I took the map from Anthony who had stopped to look at it and walked on with Sunny at my side. I could read maps. Probably can't navigate a ship or expedition but I think I could do well if I took the lead for once.

"Lilah! You'll get us lost!" Anthony shouted and ran after me but I picked up my pace. The trees were clearing up and I knew the bridge was up ahead.

"Lilah wait!" I heard Blaze call but I ignored him and continued running.

Then I reached the bridge and started crossing it. As I was halfway across, I didn't realize how high up I was until now. I immediately froze.

"Lilah!" I heard Anthony call again.

I turned back to see them all at the end of the bridge looking at me wide eyed.

"Hold still." Anthony added. A faint crack in his voice.

I then realized there was panic in his voice and I knew why. My heart dropped. This was the old rope bridge my Uncle Jerry said was close to collapsing. The last thing I wanted to do was fall like fifty feet or so below. Boy am I stupid. I couldn't crawl back because it was not stable. It would just sway back and forth. My mom wouldn't want to hear that she lost her only daughter. Jazz stood there at the end of the bridge watching me watching them, and was thinking or debating something. He ran back and grabbed a loose tree branch and came back.

"Lilah." He looked at me. "Come here slowly."

I didn't move. I just blinked at him.

"Trust me." I heard him say. He then stood at the end of bridge holding out the branch as far as he could. "Come swiftly and slowly."

"I can't." I say quietly. Where had my voice gone? To trust Jazz was like trusting a hungry lion not to eat your steak that you wave in its face. But lately he had been trustworthy.

"Lilah just do it. Don't be stubborn." Blaze called making me glare at him who shrugged in reply.

"Lilah just don't look down." Sunny called.

"Keep your eyes on me." Jazz added calmly.

I sigh and place the map in my back pocket. Time to get a grip. I put my sword in the sword belt loop and hold onto both ropes of the bridge.

"Remember slowly." Anthony calls as I'm about to step.

I glare at him and become nervous again. I take a deep breath and try to relax.

"Eyes on me."Jazz says so seriously that I feel something weird inside of me.

I train my eyes on Jazz and our eyes lock. I slowly walk toward him. Weirdly, I don't hear the birds chirping anymore of see anyone but Jazz. Is that normal? I'm like ten feet away from and all of a sudden I heard a snap. Then another. The bridge was going to give way. Panic filled me and I don't know why but I froze staring at Jazz and panic filled him too. The branch was around three feet short. He dropped the branch and rushed on the bridge, grabbed my hand, and yanked me to the other side. I literally had to jump the next two feet left because the bridge just collapsed altogether. I slammed into Jazz's chest and we all stared at the bridge as it made its last snap and dropped below. We heard a crash at the bottom of the cliffs and that sound kept echoing for a long time. We all stood there frozen in silence. I realized Jazz and I were holding hands and he had his arm around me to pull me closer to himself as the bridge fell. I looked up at Jazz and he slowly looked away from where the bridge used to be and down at me. Our eyes widened and we let of hands and jumped away from each other. He scratched head and looked at a tree and I rubbed my arms up and down as if to warm myself up and looked at where the old bridge was. I felt a hug from someone towering over me and looked up to see Anthony sighing with relief and closing his eyes sending thank you prayers to our Heavenly Father. He then left me and walked over to Jazz and did their secret handshake and gave him the cool boy hug.

"Thanks man." He murmured.

"No problem." Jazz murmured back. He looked at me for a split second and then looked away.

I then received a hug that almost made me fall over. "Lilah I am so glad you're okay." Sunny exclaimed with joy as she hugged me. Blaze came over to us to join in our group hug.

"Lilah you still haven't changed." Blaze joked.

I narrow my eyes at him, punch him in the arm and smile.

"Ow!" he fake cries.

I knew that wouldn't hurt him. He was too well fit like Anthony and Jazz.

"It's getting late, we should head back home." Anthony says and I cock an eyebrow. "We didn't take food with us." He sheepishly smiled.

I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Maybe we should wait until next Friday." I say.

"Alright. Alright." He says smiling back and holds out his hand.

I put the map in his hand and he nods in approval and takes the lead. Blaze follows then Sunny who smiles at me and makes a heart shape with her hands and snickers. I glare at her and she runs up beside Blaze. Now that I think about it, they would make a cute couple. Sunny is bright, energetic and fun. Blaze is smart, outspoken, and sometimes likes to be to himself. They're perfect in the opposite end of the spectrum of relationships. So why not? I realize Jazz is right behind me and hasn't said a word. I decide to slow my pace and walk in step with him. I then clear my throat.

"Uh thanks." I say awkwardly.

He looks at me and smiles a small smile at me. "I don't think your family would be happy to hear they lost you. Besides, I need someone to make fun of who will challenge me back."

There we go. I knew his nice act wouldn't last. "Well Beef Brain. It took you long enough to go back to your normal annoying self."

"Okay seriously. How am I annoying?"

"How are you not?"

"I anything you're the annoying one. You have to be right about everything."

"I do not!"

"There we go."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You have to be right."

"You are impossible!"

"Right back at cha."

I glare at him and he smirks. I quicken my pace wondering why I even bothered. Jazz will always be Jazz not matter what he does.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

We decided to have dinner at the Palace. Egg rolls and fried rice. Once we had entered, the smell hit us so bad, we were all drooling. We changed into comfy clothes (I decided on some sweats and a pink off the shoulder hooded sweatshirt) and piled up into kitchen.

"Are you all spending the night?" Queen Chrystina Samerique aka Anthony's and my gorgeous mom asked.

We all looked at each other and shrugged.

"I want to know so I can prepare to make phone calls." She warned.

"I guess I'll stay, I need to finish homework."Blaze finally says looking over at me and I nod understanding him. I had a crap load and it was 8:37. Better start cracking.

"I'm in." Sunny agreed.

We all look at Jazz who shoved half an eggroll in his mouth. He catches my eye and with his mouth full says "Yah I'll stay."

Anthony, Sunny, Blaze and my mom start giggling. I just nod and finish my eggroll and put my plate in the dishwasher. I knew he was just trying to look for attention. Well, he wasn't getting any from me.

"Hey Blaze, you got the math textbook?" I ask as I put my hair in a messy ponytail.

"Yah, Mr. Jones changed the assignment." He answered before taking a bite of another eggroll.

"Again?" I whine."I already did half of it."

Blaze shrugs and continues eating. I run up to my room and grab my purse, backpack, and phone and then drag it all to the living room and collapse on the floor. Sunny already has opened her English homework and is taking notes. I sit beside her and take my Creative Writing notebook out of my backpack. We're supposed to write a story or play so I needed to finish my story about this black girl named Roxy McJones who is really a teen pop sensation named Paris Bling. but nobody knows but her best friend and her family. It's sort of like Hannah Montana but I made some of her encounters not to cheesy (not to say Hannah Montana is cheesy LOVE the show) but, I made it more juicy to the reader with a little more dirty, sexy things in between but still appropriate for school.

"What cha writin?" Jazz asks and sits next to me and stretches out.

I can feel Sunny looking at me and I tense up a little. I don't like Jazz. He's annoying, really thinks he's funny but he's not and gets under my skin a lot.

"It's for Creative Writing." I say hugging my pink notebook.

"Can I see?" he asks reaching for my notebook.

I push him away and shake my head no. Sunny came up behind me and snatches the book out of my hands.

"Hey!" I shout and chase after her. She flips through some pages and then tosses the notebook over my head to Jazz who caught it. He starts reading and I glare at Sunny who laughs. I run up to Jazz to get it back but he runs off. Annoyed, I run over to Sunny and flip her ponytail.

I sigh and take out my English assignment. Blaze comes over with his backpack and takes his mathbook out. I frowned and realized I forgot my Snuggie. So I run upstairs to my room and grab my pink cheetah print Snuggie and run down the stairs. I see Jazz at the bottom of the stairs waving my notebook in the air.

"It's really a great story, I liked it." He says sincerely and hands me the my notebook. "Seriously, why all the secrets?"

I ignore him and walk past him.

"You're really good." He says behind me and makes me stop and I turn to face him.

"Thanks." I say quietly and for once I give him a tiny smile and he smiles back.

"Lilah, I…" Jazz started but Anthony walked out of the Study Room. He gave me a look that said "what are you doing?" "Anthony how do you live with your sister? She's so bossy." Jazz says covering up and looks at me.

I catch on and cock an eyebrow. "You think I'm bossy? You're a Beef Brain! You're always looking for someone to argue with."

"Whoa hold up there Pig Brain. You've always been on my case so you can blame yourself for that." He retorts.

I dropped my mouth open and narrowed my eyes at him and stomp away from them.

"Quit stalling Lilah, I need you to actually be at practice so I can still beat you!" Jazz calls.

"Maybe you should stop cheating and then we'll see who's beating who." I call back over my shoulder.

As I walk into the living room, Sunny is cocking an eyebrow at me and Blaze has his math problems out working on them. I ignore Sunny and officially start my homework. While I'm getting a pencil form my pencil pouch, I wonder what Jazz was going to say to me before Anthony showed up.

Finally, we completed our homework and decided to sleep in the living room. We pulled our inflatable mattresses out, and put blankets and pillows on them. As I crawled into my made bed, I caught Jazz's eye and he winked at me. My body suddenly felt weird and tingly. Oh no. I can't. I can't. I can't. I cannot be having a crush on Jazz. No freakin way...


End file.
